Starting a small groups ministry at your church might seem overwhelming, but it doesn't have to be. Have your best relational team/members host some people for a meal. Take a look at who lingers after service talking and hanging out. Notice the people who seem to always have a natural following and ask them to be a part.
You don’t have to have it all figured out, and you don’t have to have a complicated strategy. Assess the interests of your church and create environments around those interests. Stop waiting for perfect conditions and just start somewhere! Don't wait until you're less busy after Easter, Christmas or whatever your next big thing coming up in church happens to be. The purpose behind events should be to get people connected anyway. When that’s the case, small groups don’t compete; they complement. Small groups provide an avenue of personal relationship and connection that events don't provide. Here are some more tips about small groups in another article.
Why Small Groups Matter
Creating a small groups ministry sets an expectation and value on relationships, both internally for your staff and externally for guests and members. Relationships are the lifeblood to the body of Christ. Even Jesus, through the disciples, had a small group!
Power of Small Groups
Small groups are how early Christians grew the Church. Acts 2:46-47 lays out some simple keys that were present then, and are still true for us today.
“So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.” (NKJV) I'm paraphrasing the verse, but I like to think it's that simple: praise God and have favor with ALL people and the Church will grow. Ancient churches didn't have the metaverse, social media, marketing campaigns and budgets. They just simply acted out Acts 2. There were mega churches in the thousands recorded after Pentecost in Acts 2 as well, thousands of years before the digital age and the iPhone. The resources we have for building the kingdom today are incredible, but we can never lose sight of what the early church knew so well: Person to person interaction is POWERFUL.
Need a way to track all these groups? Checkout Involv! It's free for small groups.